Jaylon Tyson says quiet part out loud about Cavs approach: ‘We’re in cruise control’

After the Cleveland Cavaliers’ third straight loss on Sunday night to Payton Pritchard and the Boston Celtics, sophomore swingman Jaylon Tyson vented to reporters about the state of the Cavs as November drew to an official close.

“I just think we’re in cruise control, right? As a team, I think that we’re not hungry enough,” Tyson bluntly said postgame in the locker room following the 117-115 defeat. “What happened to us last year, like, it’s a similar thing that was happening this year — getting ran out the gym, getting beat on the glass. Toughness, right? So, I mean, it’s just a common theme, and ultimately it’s on us to fix.”

Yet again, the Cavs had to rely on their most inexperienced players to dig them out of a 21-point hole against the Celtics. Tyson, Nae’Qwan Tomlin, Tyrese Proctor, and a returning Craig Porter Jr. put on their hard hats to clean up the mess left behind by the core guys. It’s something Tyson and Cleveland can feel, “one thousand percent,” and, though he didn’t speak for himself Sunday, Donovan Mitchell agrees.

“That’s what gets us going, honestly,” Tyson said. “I mean, close to the end of the third, that’s what got us going, the second unit. And honestly, it’s up to all of us to feed off their energy. Don said it: the young guys and the role players, it shouldn’t be us having to bring energy every time, right? Like, everybody has to bring energy. Everybody has to pour into this thing, and that’s what made us successful.”

“We just can’t go down by 20,” Evan Mobley added. “We gotta find a way to kick into that gear that we had in the third and fourth quarter the entire game. We can’t go down that much and try to come back.”

Plus-minus isn’t always the best tell for basketball, but it told the real story in this particular instance. Holding each other accountable is necessary for the wine-and-gold to trudge through the mud and come out dry on the other side.

“Come together as a team,” Tyson said. “Do your job and just, like, compete. Want it more than the other team. I feel like teams want it more than us. There’s a target on a lot of our guys’ backs. A lot of our guys, right? And it’s everybody’s job to go at it. You want to come at us, let’s go. Let’s make this a dog fight, right? That’s how you combat it.”

“We’ve gotta just bring it every time we step on the floor,” Mobley added. “Every second of the game, we can’t let up. Can’t let them… like at the end of the first half, how they went up like that in a matter of less than a minute. You just can’t have those little slip ups, and you can’t have them compound. But we’re going to look at film, we’re going to watch it, we’re going to fix it, and we’re going to do better.”

Down 7-0 within the first 68 seconds on Sunday, Tyson called out Cleveland’s slow starts.

“We have a gear that we can get to that we get to in moments when we’re in rough situations, if that makes sense,” Tyson said. “And I feel like we need to hit that gear from the jump. It’s a common theme, from the jump. Even last year, we’d never start off good. So adjusting the mindset, going into games, and then hitting that gear early and punching teams in the face.

“Because I feel like we’re just getting hit, hit, hit, and then we go, wait, wait, wait. We’re in cruise control. And then the fourth quarter comes, and we just expect a miracle comeback.”

Clearly not holding back any punches, Tyson shared that the reason he’s so upset is that he and the team know what they’re capable of. One of his biggest takeaways from the Boston loss, ironically, is that the Cavs can win any game they play.

“I mean, if you look around this whole locker room, we’ve got dudes,” Tyson said. “We say it all the time. Like, we’ve got [them] 1-15. And obviously, we have three of some of the best players in the NBA. Our starting five, I’ll put them up with anybody in the NBA. One of the most talented teams in the NBA.

“But talent don’t win championships. It’s all the little stuff, the grittiness, the hunger. I feel like that’s what wins championships.”

The Cavs are 12-9 and have a chance to rectify things Monday night on the second night of a back-to-back against the Indiana Pacers.

“Everyone wants to be better, everyone wants to win, everyone wants to be the best we can be, but right now we’re not,” Mobley added. “And so, we’ve got to find a way on how we going to fix that.

“Frustration might help, honestly, a little bit. You use it to fuel getting better. It’s a type of energy that is created, and you just use it as fuel, and you get better, and you just can’t have it be a flaw.”

Hopefully, Tyson’s message doesn’t go in one ear and out the other for the rest of the group, because it needs to be heard.

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